Town, park argue over utility biils

Friday

Nov 1, 2013 at 2:00 AM

EXETER — Selectmen are expected to meet behind closed doors during their Monday night meeting to talk about what town officials say are more than $128,000 in unpaid utility bills owed to the town by Exeter River Landing Inc., Selectmen Chairman Don Clement said this week.

Jeff McMenemy

EXETER — Selectmen are expected to meet behind closed doors during their Monday night meeting to talk about what town officials say are more than $128,000 in unpaid utility bills owed to the town by Exeter River Landing Inc., Selectmen Chairman Don Clement said this week.

Selectmen agreed to meet to talk about the issue after the town's Water/Sewer Advisory Committee in mid-October drafted a memo to selectmen alerting them to the unpaid balance owed by the manufactured homes park.

Robert Kelly, chairman of the committee, said at the time, "In this case I would like to push to the selectmen's level a recommendation to start to bring out the big guns."

Daniel Britton, a Massachusetts attorney and vice president of the corporation that owns Exeter River Landing, e-mailed a statement responding to the recent story in the Exeter News-Letter about the committee's call for action, and provided the paper with a copy of a memo he sent to Exeter Town Manager Russ Dean.

Dean said Thursday that Exeter River Landing owes the town about $128,230 in unpaid utility bills.

But In a letter dated May 29, and signed by Britton and Lisa Klinggelhoefer, community manager for the park, they state that the Exeter River Landing had "always paid its utility bills with the town on time," prior to receiving a "corrective bill" from the town for $46,079 in March 2011.

"Since the time of the corrective bill, Exeter River Landing has continued to pay the town utility bills," Britton states in the letter. "However Exeter River Landing has been unable to keep current. The correction bill has had a cascading effect. Interest has accrued on all bills since that time and payments made by Exeter River Landing have been first applied toward interest outstanding and then principal of the billed amount on the oldest bill, which is the corrective bill."

Britton said "the one saving grace was that the notice letter stated 'this corrective bill is a non interest accruing bill.'"

But then Britton asserts the town began charging the park 12 percent interest on the corrective bill amount.

Dean, in an e-mail sent to the Exeter News Letter on Thursday, said selectmen voted to "accrue interest on any corrective bill that went unpaid longer than 30 days, at 12 percent (our standard interest accrual rate)."

"Exeter River Landing is the only remaining unpaid corrective bill at this point," Dean said in the e-mail. "Since they have had regular interactions with our water/sewer billing department many times over the past two years, it would be hard for us to believe they did not know the corrective bill was accruing interest, based on the decision of the selectmen back in May of 2011."

Britton also notes in the letter that the economy "has been unhelpful," noting that "vacancies are up and therefore revenue is substantially down."

"And to make matters worse, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has mandated that we upgrade our water system," Britton states in the letter. "The engineering plans are in progress for this, and it is going to cost us an additional sum of between $150,000 and $200,000 to comply with the DES mandate."

Plus, the town is making them install a generator for their lower pump station of a cost of $13,800, he states in the letter.

Because of this, Britton asked Dean to enter into a "written settlement agreement/payment plan," which would include:

A 50 percent cap on the $37,474 "current outstanding corrective bill;" The waiver of all interest charges on all utility bills issued subsequent to the corrective bill; A $20,000 credit from the town "toward the mandated updates to the water sewer system;" Exeter River Landing would agree to pay all future bills on time or be "subject to interest charges" that are unnamed;" A payment from the town to Exeter River Landing of $39,450 it says the town owes the park "for town owned homes," And Exeter River Landing would agree to pay $37,795 to the town in 24 monthly payments of $1,574.

Dean, in a letter to Britton dated Oct. 15, 2013, in return proposed the town could make a payment to Exeter River Landing "for tax deeded manufactured homes in the amount owed, believed to be $39,450."

But then Exeter River Landing would return that check to the town "to be used against outstanding water/sewer bills due the town."

Town officials then could enter into a 12-month "repayment schedule," for Exeter River Landing, "like it does for all other ratepayers on outstanding amounts due."

"The Board of Selectmen will consider an interest waiver of an amount to be determined based on Exeter River Landing waiving any interest due on the outstanding lot rents," Dean said in the letter.

Dean said Thursday Exeter River Landing has paid approximately $17,000 toward the corrective bill, but most has gone to interest, only $2,755 to principal.

"However beyond the corrective bills Exeter River Landing owes the Town over $75,000 in unpaid sewer bills dating from April 2011 through December 2012," he said Thursday. "In addition they owe $13,000 in interest that has accrued on those bills."

In a statement sent to the Exeter News-Letter after the advisory committee's call for action on the unpaid bill, Britton said, "the Water/Sewer Advisory Committee should have been directly involved in the multiple discussions and closed door meetings with the town manager if it is for that committee to make substantive recommendations with respect to these decisions."

Kelly said earlier that the park ran up the bill when their own water system that they normally used stopped working and the park owner had to use town water for its residents.

"They were having problems with it so they used our water system for (the) short term and then they're back on their own water system," Kelly said during that meeting. "They're not paying for the water they used. So we can turn it off, but they don't need it."

Britton said it was "disingenuous" for anyone to suggest they were ignoring their water bills and in fact the town made a mistake in calculating the water bills over a three-year period, which led to the corrective bill.

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